Coaching practices for Alternative Story Therapy
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Alternative Story Therapy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m so convinced I’m "the one who always falls apart" that I can’t see anything else
- I’ll have a breakthrough where I really feel the better version of my story, and then a few days later the old defeating account has quietly taken back over as if it never happened
- I’ve spotted a few moments where I was braver than my usual story says, but they feel like isolated flukes
- There’s a story I tell about my past
- The new way I’m trying to see myself only seems to hold when I’m alone with it
Practices that may help
- Finding Unique Outcomes (Exceptions to the Problem Story)
Surface moments when the problem did NOT dominate — these are the seeds of an alternative story.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Therapeutic Letters
A therapist’s written letter to a client between sessions — documenting alternative-story gains before they fade.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Re-Authoring the Alternative Story
Build a preferred story of identity by thickening the exceptions into a narrative with a plot.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT. - Revise your life narrative when it limits you
Identify and reauthor the story you tell about your past that constrains what you believe is possible.
The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self - Definitional Ceremonies and Outsider Witnesses
Invite meaningful others to witness and retell the new story — being known differently by others consolidates the new identity.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Landscape of Identity and Action Questions
Use two question types to map both what the person DID (action) and what that reveals about who they ARE (identity).
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Imagery rescripting for schema memories
Revisit a difficult childhood memory in imagination and rewrite it so the child’s needs are met.
Schema Therapy: Healing Early Maladaptive Beliefs - Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET): Weaving Trauma Into a Coherent Life Story
Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), developed by Schauer, Neuner, and Elbert, is a structured short-term treatment for PTSD that works by having the client construct a detailed narrative of their entire life — placing traumatic events within a larger biographical context, rather than isolating them. Multiple randomized trials in refugee and war-affected populations show significant, durable reductions in PTSD symptoms. NET is particularly suited to complex and repeated trauma where individual events cannot easily be isolated. - Name it to tame it: tell the story of the big feeling
Help the child narrate what happened and how it felt — storytelling is brain integration.
The Whole-Brain Child (Siegel & Bryson)
Related concerns
- Narrative Therapy Techniques
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
- Alternative Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
- Narrative Therapy Community
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
- Narrative Therapy Rewriting The Stories That Define You As A Parent
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
- Narrative Therapy Values
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
- Preferred Story Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.